Special Interests

by China Partridge, June 2014

1500 words

5 pages

essay

Date:

Interest groups are organizations with a common interest in politics to protect and in other cases to make sure that the interest they are pursuing go well for especially in the government. These groups are for celebrating a common heritage, pursuing a political or social agenda, shaping a policy debate or strengthening a vocation or a profession (Maisel & Berry, 2010). Whatever the case, these groups play a vital role in the society because more often than not, they are always representing a minority group that wants to be heard. An example of an interest group is National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

There are other social movements that have seen interest groups and formation of counter groups in response for the initial groups. A good example is the formation of Putting People First (PPF) a social organization interest group that came up to counteract the formation of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Every year almost a million groups form and with the contraption of the internet, more groups will come up (Anderson, 2011). People do not even need to make physical meetings, all they need is access to the internet and everything else can be planned and executed virtually. Had there been internet during the World I time, women’s suffrage organization and the civil rights would have benefited a lot.

Interest groups are more organized than all the other groups, that is why they are able to get the attention of the political parties or the government. They know who to send where and how he or she will be able to get the attention of a principal figure they are seeking to meet (Maisel & Berry, 2010). Good organization is crucial for the groups to be taken seriously.

These interest groups will put into use some techniques that will offer the lawmakers what they want and help them achieve their goals in the process. They can use persuasion, economic leverage, litigation, disruption, information, economic leverage and material incentives (Anderson, 2011). Accessing the government officials can be a hard but, since some people have easier ways of getting to the government official they are seeking to have an audience with, the interest groups will use these people. Some of these are actors like Angelina Jolie, Michael J. Fox and Bono who have lobbied for various causes. Angelina and Bono have managed to lobby the Congress for it to look into their respective causes.

The interest groups will use the information that they have gathered to get the attention of the government and persuade them to get what they want done. Since the government officials are busy doing other things and have no time to research on some of these issues, they will employ the help of these interest groups (Anderson, 2011). In the end, we will find that these interest groups will publish the information they will gather, the public will give their opinion, the interest groups will have had a hand in …

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